Having said that I am a time served welder fabricator, so none of the above counts
I reckon that Alan B has hit the nail on the head as usual.
For those who have welded up a chassis can I ask: How many hours did it take from pile of tubes to completed chassis ready for paint/coating?
I've read somewhere to allow 1 hour per tube for preparation, but I don't think that covers tacking, welding and finishing.
Cheers
James
You’re expecting to spend an hour cutting a tube to size?
I recon you could cut, file, prep and weld a tube into place in less than 30 mins.
Hi Mr. Whippy - yup the 1 hour figure was for tube cut and prep. I'd read it somewhere on here or the yank site. But I can't find it now,
and guess that I could well have misunderstood it.
Tegwin - is 30mins for cut, prep and weld what you are seeing in practice?
Cheers,
James
I think the one hour figure was for one-off chassis....it seems about right I'd say if you are ignoring brackets etc using number of tubes in the
whole frame as rule of thumb......
How many tubes are in the Locost chassis?.....around 100?...if so I'd say 100 hours for a complete frame was about right.
Anyone disagree significantly?
Alan
Is that 100 hours from pile of tubes to trusty chassis?
That may have come from me, which came from a machinist/fabricator who's built many tube frame chassis. I found his rule-of-thumb about right
when I built mine, so passed it on in my book.
Don't forget to figure in if TIG is used, which is much slower than MIG.
[Edited on 4/4/08 by kb58]
I reckon if you spent a long time on the first few tubes that you cut it would be a good investment.
You will improve and get quicker over time but the first few cut tubes create the square which is the base for the whole car on Ron's Locost
design. If that is out of square then everything attached to it will be off too. I have read that some people on here have created a whole chassis
in a weekend but if you're not used to metal work its worth taking stuff at your own pace. If you rush you will only regret it at your leisure
later.
Take all the time you need.
As a beginner of metal work and somewhat picky I am averaging about 30-45 min to get my tubes cut and fit the way I want. The only thing book about my chassis is the width though. Depending on how square you want things, and how many compound angles you have I wouldn't be suprised to see 1hr per tube is accurate.
Besides, it's not a race. The journey is supposed to be fun, too.
Took me about 4 or 5 years...
I had the basic frame up and running in 42 hours, but that is without the steering rack supports, pedal box, and rear panel tubes, so I think I could
do another in about 65 hours complete.
Having said that I am a time served welder fabricator, so none of the above counts
I reckon that Alan B has hit the nail on the head as usual.
Hi
I'm building my own chassis at the moment.
So far I have been on it for 3 days, so about 25 hrs.
I recon I am about half way through, so realisticly I think it will take about 50 hrs.
plus an extra day just to check everything over before painting.
David 
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^^^^^^^^
I see you are using the Clarke "Light weight" welder. 
Paul G
quote:
Originally posted by 907
^^^^^^^^
I see you are using the Clarke "Light weight" welder.
Paul G
For me about an hour a tube is about right, looking at it from the point of view of going from a pile of tube to a fully welded frame.
Some took a lot less, some took a lot more, some had to be thrown in the bin.
quote:
Originally posted by iank
quote:
Originally posted by 907
^^^^^^^^
I see you are using the Clarke "Light weight" welder.
Paul G
Using new helium transformer technology
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
Took me about 4 or 5 years...